Fair Housing Bill Targets Voucher Discrimination

Senators Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) have introduced legislation to expand the Fair Housing Act in an effort to improve access to affordable housing.

The Fair Housing Improvement Act of 2018 specifically targets discrimination based on source of income—i.e., use of housing vouchers—as well as veteran status. It would add these factors to the list of categories explicitly protected under the law, which currently include race, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, and disability.

"The move comes just a few months after the Department of Housing and Urban Development launched a push to get more landlords to accept housing vouchers, citing two studies that 'most' landlords do not accept housing vouchers and therefore deny affordable housing opportunities to those who need it most," Ben Lane reports in Housing Wire.

About 2.2 million veterans and low-income households currently receive federal housing vouchers, Lane notes.